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Posts Tagged ‘public relations’
Wednesday, November 2nd, 2011
Mikal Belicove makes a good point when he says that not all publicity is good publicity.
Are you still sending out press releases to every online source you find? You might want to rethink that strategy. Reputation matters and if you get associated with low quality spam sites, that will be a hard reputation to shake. It could stay with you for the rest of your online life.
Mr. Belicove mentions four specific ways that bad PR can hurt your business:
- Promoting to audiences not likely to become your customers.
- You could drive traffic away from your website with bad PR practices.
- Placing your news article or press release on bad sites with unfocused content, cheap PPC ads, or other issues.
- You could benefit the other site more than you benefit your own.
These are all valid concerns. You don’t want to take on the practice of just publishing anywhere you can get a byline. Rather, you want to examine and analyze every website you find to determine whether or not that website is a good place for you. Don’t publish content anywhere it could hurt your business.
In an age of online content marketing, public relations is not all good. Some can hurt you long term.
Tags: content marketing, online reputation, public relations
Posted in PR for Small Business | 3 Comments »
Wednesday, August 17th, 2011
Do you have an online media kit? Do you need one?
I think, if you are an expert in your niche and you have a website, then you should have a section of your website that is set aside just for the media. Call it a media kit, or call it what you want. But you should have it. I have one and I call it a media kit.
Your media kit can be as basic as providing a bio and publishing your press releases to something more dynamic that involves video and multimedia presentations. No matter how you do it, you should present information that media professionals, journalists and reporters, and potential publication editors would be interested in as background information on you.
Amy Lynn Andrews does a good job of telling you how to put together a media kit for your small business. And I agree with her that you should keep it simple.
I think another important aspect to a media kit is highlighting your successes. If you look at my media kit, you’ll see that I do quite a bit of that. It’s not bragging. OK, maybe it is, but it’s bragging with a purpose. Successful media campaigns tell the world that you are an expert in your niche more than any other tool. If other media professionals think you’re an expert, then shouldn’t the one that you are pitching to right now?
It takes a little time to put together a good media kit, but it’s well worth the effort.
Tags: media kit, public relations, small business, website design
Posted in PR for Small Business | 3 Comments »
Sunday, May 29th, 2011
All Facebook shares these tips for effective marketing and public relations through Facebook:
- Post your best content on Thursday because that is the day it is most likely to get read.
- Release major news releases early in the morning; otherwise, you will get shuffled to the bottom of the news feeds.
- Full links are 300% more likely to get read than short URLs (which is the total opposite of Twitter, by the way).
- When adding buttons to your website, use both the Like and the Send button.
- If you want to be included in the top news of your friends’ feeds, focus on gaining higher “Edge Rank,” the algorithm that is based on certain key words like “today” and “limited time only.”
- Since Facebook is one of the leading sites for driving traffic to 21 of the top news agency websites, make good use of it in your social media marketing.
- Words like “best” and “most” are most shareable on Facebook.
- If you want your video to go viral, Facebook is the best platform to use.
I can’t vouch personally for all of these tips, but a few of them I can. The full link, for instance, is a must when sharing on Facebook. Also, posting your news release first thing in the morning means being top priority for the day.
Have fun, and be effective, when posting on Facebook.
Tags: facebook, public relations, social media PR
Posted in Social Media | 1 Comment »
Thursday, February 3rd, 2011
One of the biggest mistakes online marketers make is the overuse of jargon, or phrases that don’t mean anything to journalists. This is actually more prevalent than you may think, and it is avoidable.
Jargon can be anything from industry speak to catch phrases like “touch base.” Do you include these types of phrases in your press releases and other public relations documents, either online or off line? If so, then I’d encourage you to rewrite those releases and documents.
Jargon has a tendency to put you on the inside while your audience is stuck on the outside. Why alienate the very people you are trying to reach?
And I’m not necessarily talking about journalists. Though, to be honest, journalists should be considered when crafting your public relations pieces. Any journalist that reads your press release full of jargon will have to decide whether or not to use it and foist it upon their audience. Chances are, if it is off-putting to the journalist, then the journalist isn’t going to use it, thinking it will be off-putting to his audience. So it’s important to cut out the jargon and make your public relations efforts appeal to as broad an audience as possible.
Tags: journalist, press release, public relations
Posted in PR for Small Business | 1 Comment »
Thursday, October 21st, 2010
When it comes to public relations, do you have a plan beyond writing a press release and sending it to the local newspapers? If not, you should.
Social media is fast becoming a useful PR tool. When you consider that most journalists these days are using social media websites like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter then it seems to reason that these can be used for public relations. But how?
Keep in mind that blogs are also considered a part of social media. So how do you use these tools for public relations? Here’s one way:
- Find the most prominent bloggers in your industry and read their blog daily. Make comments when appropriate.
- After establishing a relationship with important bloggers by being a frequent commenter, send them an e-mail – a brief e-mail – that explains what you do and ask if they’d be interested in a story about it. NOTE: Make it something that is newsworthy just as you would when writing a press release.
- If the blogger says send more information then send a more detailed e-mail. Don’t send a press release. It’s too formal. Offer the blogger an opportunity to interview you and offer to write a guest blog post. Many bloggers do allow guest bloggers and you never know which way they will go. You might get an interview or a guest blog appearance – or both.
- Once you’ve been published on a blog, help promote the blog post through social media – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and social bookmarking.
- If there are social media personalities who don’t blog then follow them on the social media sites they post to. Similar to the way you did the blogger and follow up the same way as well.
Social media is the new PR tool. Don’t overlook it.
What ways do you use social media as a PR, or public relations, tool?
Tags: public relations, Social Media
Posted in PR for Small Business | 1 Comment »
Friday, May 21st, 2010
Two days ago Facebook announced in its developer forum that it was going to make businesses who planned to build fan pages first work through an ads account representative and be “authenticated”. You can read about it here.
Yesterday, however, the company decided to revert back to its old way of doing things and nixed the idea.
Facebook Fan Pages are actually good for business. Even without the custom landing tabs, but Facebook made a few strategic errors here with this move and I’d like to examine those to see what we can learn.
- First, don’t make an announcement with such a huge impact in your developer’s forum. If it affects as many people as this obviously was going to affect then it deserves a more public outing.
- Secondly, if you’re going to make a big decision like this then discuss it with your community of customers first. See if it’s something that they’ll approve of before you embarrass yourself.
- Thirdly, any time you restrict a change to users of your site that have more of a good thing (ie. 10,000 fans) then remember that you are shutting out the little people. Before you do that, learn how your decision will affect those little people. If it doesn’t look good then don’t go through with your plans.
- Finally, stick to your guns. If it truly was a good idea then you shouldn’t back down. If you do back down when the crying begins then it wasn’t a good idea. Think it through before you do it.
There are several ways Facebook could have lessened the impact of the news and maybe even kept some small business owners happy. Be sure that you have a good handle on how your changes will affect your audience. Don’t act until you do.
Tags: communication, facebook, public relations
Posted in Social Media | No Comments »
Sunday, November 1st, 2009
If you are planning to do any public relations online then you’ll have to get a little creative and think outside the box on how to approach it. There’s more to online PR than sending a press release out to the distribution websites and waiting for a phone call. You’ve got to be a bit more aggressive and get your feet moving.
Certainly you want to send out press releases. I’m not saying don’t do that. But there are other ways to get the publicity you seek. Three sources of online publicity that you don’t want to overlook are:
- Bloggers
- Podcasters
- Videocasters
Bloggers will often interview or highlight a business professional with a particular expertise. But you don’t necessarily need a press release to approach a blogger. Often, just a short, brief e-mail explaining your pitch is enough. If the blogger likes it then you’ll get a mention.
With podcasters, if you’ll scour the podcast directories you may find a podcast show within your niche. There are online radio stations now that program shows by the hour or a particular time slot. See if you can find one that deals with your topic and pitch the radio show host the same way you would a blogger.
If you scan YouTube, Hulu, and other video websites for video shows within your niche you can often find video shows within your niche just like podcasts. A short e-mail to the video show host or producer may often produce some publicity for you as well.
Don’t hold back. Be relentless in your pursuit of online publicity and don’t be afraid to pitch people you’d least expect. Just be polite and courteous and professional.
Tags: bloggers, online PR, podcasting, public relations, publicity, videos
Posted in PR for Small Business | No Comments »
Monday, October 19th, 2009
Online reputation management consists of three things. That is, is falls on the intersection of three specific disciplines, which are:
- Public relations
- Marketing
- SEO
Where these three disciplines meet is where online reputation management hangs its hat.
First, public relations. This is the discipline that involves courting the media to engage them in a conversation that you hope will cast your business and brand in a positive light. Note that there are no guarantees. You are trying to persuade media – general and specific – to portray your business in a certain way, but they have their freedoms and you must respect that. Nevertheless, working on your relationship with media personalities can go a long way to casting your reputation in the best manner possible.
Marketing is different than public relations. Marketing is customer relations and market positioning. It doesn’t traditionally involve the media unless it includes paid advertising. The point is to build a brand and communicate your brand’s values to the market using communication strategies that tell your story.
SEO, or search engine optimization, the practice of writing online content in such a way that search engines favor it over your competition’s.
When you position these three disciplines side by side, you have online reputation management. Don’t leave it to chance.
Tags: marketing, online reputation management, public relations, SEO
Posted in Reputation Management | No Comments »
Friday, October 2nd, 2009
Small business PR doesn’t have to be expensive. Many small business entrepreneurs never take advantage of the opportunities they have to expand their network and marketing opportunities through public relations either because they are under the false impression that their small budget cuts them out of the same benefits that the big companies get or they just don’t have the time to think about it. Let’s put in a nip in the bud of both of these false impressions right now.
First, good PR does not have to be expensive. You are not IBM or Burger King. Focus on the things that you do best and let a PR professional show you some easy, inexpensive ways you can get good PR.
For starters, you can include a media section on your own website (you do have a website, don’t you?). We call it a media kit.
An online media kit is an easy way to invite members of the press to find out more about you. You can include your bio and any positive news stories about your company in your online media kit. If you local media find it easy to contact you then you’ll get more calls from them, more interviews, and more free press exposure.
As far as time goes, if you just take 15 minutes a day to think of ways that you can increase your public relations exposure and devote 1 hour per week for implementation then you can have a solid PR strategy going within just a couple of months. Don’t let lack of time and a small budget hold you back from taking advantage of the benefits that other, bigger companies are getting. You deserve them too.
Tags: media kit, PR, public relations, small business
Posted in PR for Small Business | No Comments »
Saturday, September 5th, 2009
When it comes to public relations, should you do it yourself or hire a PR firm?
Many small business owners make the mistake of trying to do it themselves. It’s not that they aren’t smart people. And it isn’t that they couldn’t handle the work. The real issue for most small business people is that they can’t see their own businesses objectively. It takes a trained eye to be able to step back and ask the hard questions.
One of the requirements of a public relations agency is that they have a good slate of relationships already built. Many PR firms are successful at getting the results they want based on those relationships. Do you have established media relationships from which to draw to gain the leverage you need to drum up publicity? If not then you should hire a professional.
PR firms do a lot of behind the scenes type of work that a small business owner can’t do for herself, or that she may not know she should do. There’s more to effective public relations that just writing a press release. And if you don’t have experience at running a successful public relations campaign from the ground up, perhaps you should hang up the hat and hire a firm after all.
Tags: PR, PR firm, public relations, public relations agency
Posted in PR for Small Business | 2 Comments »
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